Lifestyles are very busy, and many families are away from home during large portions of the day for work, school, and other activities. As a consequence, the preparation of the evening meal can be significantly delayed until the cook returns home. Many families have extracurricular activities in the evenings. Thus, a delay in the preparation of the evening meal can undesirably overlap into the time allotted for these extracurricular activities. This problem is exacerbated if the family member cooking the meal is postponed on his or her return from work or school. This postponement causes the evening meal to be further delayed.
To meet such demanding schedules, many people replace the home-cooked evening meal with low nutritional value snacks, fast food, or by simply skipping meals. This unhealthy replacement for the home-cooked meal contributes to an increase in diet related disorders, such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and so forth. Accordingly, there is a need to decrease the preparation time for home-cooked meals following a return from work or school to provide incentive for the preparation and consumption of home-cooked meals, rather than snacks and fast food.
Microwave and convection ovens have typically been used to cook meals quickly. Unfortunately, the preparation of a meal entails more than simply cooking the food. In addition to cooking the meal, a cook typically has to prepare the food in advance by cleaning it, cutting it, combining it with other ingredients, and so forth. This advance preparation can be even more time consuming than cooking the food. Sometimes a cook may prepare a meal in advance and store it in the refrigerator until he or she gets home, at which time, the cook will place the food in the oven to bake it. Unfortunately, the baking time can still undesirably delay the time at which the meal may be eaten.
Yet another tactic that cooks use is to place frozen food on the counter to thaw before leaving for work. The thawed food is then cooked upon their return home. Unfortunately, the food may thaw to room temperature before anyone returns home. Thawed foods that reach room temperature, particularly meat products, can become unsafe due to bacterial growth. Hence, it is recommended that most foods should be thawed in the refrigerator, rather than on the countertop.